Examination of Witnesses (Questions 153-159)
DAME
SUE STREET
DCB, LIZ NICHOLL
MBE,
MONDAY
6 MARCH 2006
Sir John Bourn KCB, Comptroller
and Auditor General, National Audit Office, was in attendance.
Mr Marius Gallaher, Alternate
Treasury Officer of Accounts, HM Treasury, was in attendance.
REPORT BY THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR
GENERAL
UK SPORT: SUPPORTING ELITE ATHLETES (HC
182)
Q153 Chairman: Good afternoon, welcome
to the Committee of Public Accounts, where today we are taking
the unusual step of summoning witnesses back because of some confusion
about answers which were given about whether or not we have a
target for the 2012 Olympic Games. Obviously there is quite a
large degree of public interest in this matter. Ms Nicholl, why
did you not make it clear when we were questioning you at the
main hearing that ministers had not yet decided, that you were
offering a range of targets, that this was advice to ministers
and therefore you did not wish to comment? That is a defence civil
servants often use, so why did you not use it? Why did you give
us the impression that there was no target?
Ms Nicholl: I think we made it
very clear that actually a submission to government which was
under consideration by ministers included a range of targets which
were directly linked to a funding request which had been put to
accompany those targets.
Q154 Chairman: I do not recall you
saying that it was advice to ministers. A number of questions
were put to you and the clear implication of your answers was
that there was no target. I understand that there is no target
because ministers have not yet agreed it. You did not say that,
did you?
Dame Sue Street: In answer to
Question 95 Liz Nicholl said ". . . we have made a submission
to the DCMS, to ministers and to the Treasury for funding support".
I entirely agree that did not set out all the scenarios, but it
did clarify that that was the position.
Q155 Chairman: Ms Nicholl at the
hearing you said "The target for 2012 has not yet been set"
and in your letter to me, Dame Sue, you said ". . . an Olympic
medal target for 2012 has not been agreed or set". Yet UK
Sport's funding agreement for 2003-06 includes a target of fifth
place in the Olympic medal table in 2012. That is right, is it
not?
Dame Sue Street: I regret the
way in which the language has been used and I completely understand
the concerns, as indeed do ministers. The position is that no
final target has been agreed or set. As the Secretary of State
made clear since this hearing in her letter of 16 February "The
Government remains of the view that it is too early to set a precise
medal target at this stage". What we have done, and I apologise
to the Committee for this, is to confuse in various documentation
long-term aims, goals and specific, measurable, agreed, resourced
targets. We shall in future publish a glossary which will make
it absolutely plain what we mean by a target, but no firm target
has been set for 2012.
Q156 Chairman: You did not mention
this funding agreement when you were asked several questions on
this and when you wrote to me, Dame Sue, why did you not set the
record straight about this funding agreement? Again you did not
mention it; it would have been an opportunity for you to say that
you were sorry. It says in this document Funding Agreement
between the United Kingdom Sports Council and the Department for
Culture Media and Sport, [1]"2012
Summer Olympics . . . Team GB's place in the medal table is measured
by the number of gold medals—fifth". You could have
put that in your letter, could you not? That would have resolved
some of the confusion.
Dame Sue Street: Paragraph three
did attempt to set the record straight. We said that UK Sport's
2003-06 funding agreement and the annual review showed that UK
Sport's long-term goal was to move towards fifth in the Olympic
medal table. Of course the funding agreement was examined by the
NAO and the confusion arises in a detailed table where the wrong
word is used, for which I am sorry.
Q157 Chairman: Setting the record
straight now: there is no target.
Dame Sue Street: The situation
is exactly as I read onto the record earlier "The Government
remains of the view that it is too early to set a precise medal
target at this stage".
Q158 Chairman: When do you expect
to have a target?
Dame Sue Street: We have said
that the final target will not be set until after we have reviewed
our performance at Beijing. Obviously UK Sport will look forward
eagerly to knowing what resources they will have available to
them in order to see what sort of position they are trying to
go for, but the final target will not be set until after Beijing.
Q159 Chairman: Why have you backtracked
from this target of fifth place which is in the funding agreement?
Dame Sue Street: I do not think
anybody has backtracked.
1 This document is available at: www.uksport.gov.uk Back
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